Alright Im gonna borrow from BSG, and apply the idea to star trek. Make the show a hard sci fi version of star trek, with no aliens no ftl, transporters, force shields, artificial gravity, sub space commuication or other unknown techologies and stick to ones we know likely to exist. In not too distant future earth developes an advance knowledge of human genetics, nuclear fusion, and advanced computing techologies. Genetic engineering becomes common place, augmented humans attempt to take over the world in a great eugenics war. Towards the end of the war, and nuclear fusion expert zefhrane Cochran, develops the nuclear propulsion technologies allowing for a mass colonization of the solar system. upon the end of the war, a unified planetary federation emerges. With strict laws governing the use of genetic engineering i.e. the prime directive. . As a consequence of laws, many augmented peoples are expelled from earth to orbital colonies around the asteroid belt. The initiates the ;last contact; between augments and earth. 2 centuries after the events of last contact, the planetary federation now a utopia is sending out a wave of exploration missions to the long forgotten augment colonies. With each colony having to deal with a unique survival scenario, diverse genetic adaptions, and philosophies occur. Aboard the nuclear propulsion vessel Enterprise a captain jame t kirk sets out on a five year mission to seek out these colonies. After nearly 2 centuries of federation mandated isolation, it appears these colonies have developed into societies of their own. With several augment groups fighting for dominance of the solar system. It appears the most deadly of these groups are the descendants of cardassia colony, kronus colony, and romulus. Seeking allies from more pleasant colonies, such as betazed, orion colony, vulcan, bajor, and andor, the federation seeks a great solar Confederacy.
The first thing I would do, is not call it "Star Trek". They are after all, not Trekking to the Stars. Develop it as a separate stand alone universe. I had my own storyverse that is somewhat similar. Robots, Androids, genetic engineering, cyborgs, etc. is good. There is a serious dearth of "artificial" life forms in Federation society. Star Wars gets it right. I think they will be ubiquitous. On the technical side, continuous 1g acceleration allows for reasonably short trips to the outer planets, while allowing for "gravity" on the ships. Stations would spin to simulate it. And I actually could see a lot of separatist colonies even in Prime universe Trek. I have never been convinced that Religious Right fundamentalists, racial nationalists, and people from all manner of ideological, linguistic, cultural and religious groups will all form the harmonious, classless, multicultural Paradise Earth of Star Trek. Not by a long shot. One of the offshoot colonies I had was a white nationalist, white separatist world called Euros. It was founded by people who think IDIC is a leftist crackpot philosophy. None of my stuff was set in Star Trek, but a lot of it could be there. Especially in the Enterprise and Daedalus era of the 2150's - 2160's, but possibly later as well. You should also consider bioforming as well. Rather than terraform a planet, which is a colossal undertaking, you could bioform the people. Make them suitable to the planet, rather than making the planet suitable to them. That would be much faster and far cheaper than terraforming and also allows for alien-like encounters with some offshoots of humanity who have long since adapted to their new worlds.
My thoughts exactly. Each race would have its appearance and culture defined by their adaptation strategy. The klingons would go the uberman route, and design themselves to be the ultimate predator, physically imposing, environmental rugged. Due to their understandings of social darwinism, would see having massive families as the ultimate survival trait. Adding benefit would be the rate at which they reaching reproductive age after only 24 months. They would have the largest population of all the subspecies of all the augments. Cardassions, would have modified they genetic code to that of a reptile, giving them better resistance to radiation, and a scaled skin which makes they able to survive at air pressures as low as mars. Romulans and vulcans would stick to intellect type engineering, with only minor differences in their physiology. As a result both subspecies have traits of autistic savants. With the romulans preferring lower intelligence with a greater ability for emotion. While small in number both are considered the most intelligent of the galaxy. Bajorans and betazoids, would be considered the social butterflies of the augments. With physical beauty and empathic abilities leading to cooperation being ideal. Both would be physically smaller than humans adapted for microgravities. Bajorans themselves maturing at such a fast rate leading them to be one of the most numerous of the augments, second only to klingons. Anyway this would be star trek, I like the idea of maintaining established races and the cultural artifacts that go along with them. With the exclusion of technobabble most episodes would be basically the same as most episodes of normal trek. Id wager good money it be closer to TOS star trek, than the jjabram version.
You can have crew modules that swivel with the direction of acceleration and then into a different position when not accelerating and switch to rotational gravity! The best thing to do with the acceleration, which will push everyone anyway is to use it for gravity. You only need to rotate when not accelerating. I'd develop it as stand alone myself. But, it's your baby!
Well why call it Star Trek? Just make up a new franchise, since this is not Star Trek. You'd have to create some mega techno babble though to explain the colonists ability to not only create a sustainable colony in asteroids, but one capable of interplanetary travel. How would you protect from cosmic radiation if this is an extended space mission and there are no shields? Humans creating colonies, the colonies seceding, and the stories dealing with the subsequent political landscape is a neat concept though.
There would be some form of plate shielding just not the magical kind like on tng. Again it would still be star trek, in fact I argue itd be closer to TOS than anything since.
Well considering we already use electromagnetic fields on tanks to repulse projectiles, I don't know how magical a proposition it is if it's 300 years from now or so. And they had shields in TOS too. But isn't TOS about seeking out new life and new civilizations, boldly going where no man(no one) has gone before? Or do you mean you want it to be like Wagon Train?
One could have asked the same question of DS9 or VOY. Why call it Star Trek when you're creating original characters on other ships, or in DS9's case a space station? Why didn't they simply make up their own new franchise? Why attach the name Star Trek to an original show if for no other reason than to cash in on the name? It works both ways. I wouldn't mind a new reboot taking liberties with things. A lot of things fans take for granted today are later developments from later series and movies anyway, and can be freely ignored. The 23rd Century date, for instance, isn't established until the films. I've no problem with things like that being tossed in the trash. And no future Trek series should be beholden to anything from Berman-Trek.
Using the Star Trek name is likely the only way to get anyone to invest the millions needed to get a space series off the ground.
This is exactly what I intend it to be. Using the definition of man, as one born on earth. New civilizations created by genetically engineered speicies could have an untold diversity. millions upon millions of people living in orbital colonies. Not to mention with unrestricted genetic engineering who knows what kinda alien species could be developed. Genetic virus, parasitic organism, living ships, etc could all pop up week to week, without requiring ftl. Its also give a plausible explanation to how one ship has seen so much that never occured before. I like the idea that these engineered species are reproducing at a astronomical rate. Double in population every few years, its give a real urgency to this exploration, as well give an interesting context for a moral message. Not to mention the idea of a genetic engineered borg
That's a really silly argument. Do you actually believe what you wrote? All the spin offs took place within the established Star Trek universe. Even the nutrek adhered to established canon to a point, and kept things trek. Chronologically speaking, they called it star trek because there were cross overs, they were aware of each other, and they acknowledged each other. Takings liberties is fine, but this suggestion is basically just creating a whole new sci-fi that has nothing to do with Star Trek, dealing away completely with the mythos of the Star Trek universe, and calling it Star Trek, for no other purpose than seemingly to utilize planet names. I think it would make 200% more sense to just have it as it's own IP. It's no different than Joss Whedon wanting to call Firefly Star Trek.
You'd lose that arguement. It's not Star Trek with "no aliens no ftl, transporters, force shields, artificial gravity, sub space communication or other unknown techologies and stick to ones we know likely to exist. If they're not going faster than warp 1 then they are by definition not doing the "wagon trail to the stars" They're not reaching any stars. You're proposing a bunch of humans never interacting with other humans, since they're going so slow and can't communicate with Earth or any of these colonies. "Send a transmission to Colony T-9." "Trasmission sent. We should get a response 8 years from now. Not that it matters. We won't reach them for 41 years." For a show set in space to be entertaining, you're going to have to have some magical yet-to-be-invented device to get the characters interacting with other interesting characters. Otherwise you have a bunch of people with advanced degrees in biology and mechanics updating algorithms and examining moss.
. With the exception transporters none of those techs are integral to most plot lines. Aside from that many of the better episodes are when transporting isn't possible. Its a plot device needed before the dawn of CGI, but nowadays is an archaic artifact. Technically most of the humanoid alien life isn't alien, as a major part of trek canon already has most humanoid life in the galaxy being seeded by the same species So on all counts I think I won that part of the argument. The is where being pedantic comes in, name one actual episode where reaching the star is the actual point of the plot. ITs about going out into the unknown the stars are a destination but getting their isn't the point, its the alien life that one is seeking. Using genetic engineering as a plausible plot device, would keep trek current, and at the same time allow for an uncomprehendable diversity of alien life. The asteroid belt is a place that is capable of supporting billions(most scientist predict trillions) of lives. Planet are a horrid place for space colonization. The amount of surface area of a planet is very limited, with limited resources, and a massive gravity well its one of the worst places you could go once getting to space. This depends entirely on where one is to in the solar system. Voyageur for example was well beyond the range of subspace communication. Furthermore the asteroid belt is at worst a few hours away by radio communication. This kinda a limitation I think only improves the narrative of true exploration as the captain(central trek point) is isolated from consultation and most always take actions into their own hands. This is the exact kinda plot device that good writing strengthens. Its not just simply a desire for realism, its about maintaining a relevant plot line, that modern people can relate too. In the 1960s TOS was as much a realistic vision of the future as what I am now. Or how about simply explore strange new worlds, that have yet to be seen by humans. I.e. massive oneil cylinders teaming with unknown lifeforms. If your not getting it, the genetic engineering would have taken a course of its own. Due to the prime directive humans would have be barred from contact with all unnatural life for over two centuries. It would be true exploration of unknown life, out in space, in strange worlds. Itd be more trek in many ways than people would realize.
"For the World is Hollow, and I Have Touched the Sky. TOS, third season. A hollowed out asteroid contains an Earth like environment within. Not a conventional class M planet, but it worked as a setting. Actually, I think these hollowed out asteroids could become common. As well as being canon.
OP's premise sounds more like an outer space version of Roddenberry's unsold Genesis II pilot, rather than Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica.
Vaguely, not sure how much of any of it has in common, minus the mutants aspect. And even that is vague, as Klingons would look like Klingons, Vulcans like Vulcans etc. I would argue my idea would likely be closer to Andromeda is many ways but without question be far more trek.
So a series based on Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek featuring Star Trek characters Kirk and Spock on the Enterprise isn't Star Trek and should just be an unrelated original series, but a series like VOY, created by other people with totally original characters and many original alien races, untilizing the Star Trek name and a few core terms somehow is and should be Star Trek. Do I have that right? The OP's idea takes too many liberties for my taste, but I have no problem with movie-Trek and Berman-Trek being ignored in future productions, as well as some of the sillier aspects of TOS. The 23rd Century date is never established on screen in TOS, and so I have no problem with a new Trek taking place much further into the future than a few mere centuries. Berman-Trek is not the end all and be all of Star Trek. It was merely one interpretation of the original source material, just as the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films were one interpretation of Conan Doyle's stories. Now we have the Cumberbatch series. At some point, you have to move on. It's time to go back to the source material, update it for a modern audience but keep it Star Trek in spirit.
What I would like to see in a Trek reboot is going back to what we saw with Jeffrey Hunter. Spock would still be there, but he's subordinate to Number One, who is the coldly logical one. It would allow a new interpretation of Spock and not be tied to Nimoy's eventual characterization. No Sulu, no McCoy, no Uhura, no Scott, and no Kirk. Instead we have Jose Tyler, Philip Boyce, Yeoman Colt, and anyone else we can grab from "The Cage".
I looked at the wikipedia article for the pilot-"Robert Hewitt Wolfe used the name Dylan Hunt and many ideas from Roddenberry's Genesis II notes to create the Andromeda television series." Genesis II-society collapsed due to World War III. The survivors fragmented, and new societies are arising from the ashes. Andromeda-war collapsed the Commonwealth. The survivors fragmented into different groups. Many live in "drifts" in outer space.